Malayer,
Bijar
Bijar rugs are mainly woven in the town of Bijar and its surrounding villages. Bijar is located in the province of Kurdistan in northwest of Iran. Bijar rugs are mostly considered village rugs because whether woven in the town of Bijar itself or its surrounding villages, they are woven inside houses rather than workshops. The pattern of Bijar rugs is a combination of curvilinear and geometric with curvilinear being dominant. The favorite colors of Bijar weavers consist of navy, cherry red, brown, light blue, pink, yellow, ocher, orange, beige and ivory. The symmetrical (Turkish) knot is mainly used although the asymmetrical (Persian) knot is seen as well.
One of the most common motifs used in Bijar rugs is the herati motif. This motif can be seen in both the all-over and medallion layouts. The signature design of Bijar rugs is the herati medallion-and-corner, which has a very large hexagon-shaped medallion usually with pendants. Often several hexagon medallions are woven inside one another and they become larger as they get further away from the center. In this design, the entire rug with the exception of the borders is filled with herati motifs.
In addition to the herati motif, other all-over motifs and designs used in Bijar rugs are boteh, mina-khani, zell-i-sultan and gul farangi.
Bijar rugs generally tend to have several minor borders, and one frequently seen motif in the border is the Shah Abbasi motif.
Bijar weavers beat the weft strands against the rows of knot repeatedly until the weave becomes extremely compact. As a result, Bijar rugs are dense, heavy, and exceptionally durable. Since the warp and the weft strands are so firmly pressed together, if Bijar rugs are folded, their foundation may break. Therefore, they should not be folded; they should be rolled.
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